Stationery Drama
Title: Stationery Drama
Pairing: Qmi, not-so-ninja!yewon, hanchul, kangteuk and eunhae
Rating: PG-13 (for some brief mentions of kissing and vague sexual innuendos)
Wordcount: 9258
Summary: In which Kyuhyun the pencil and Zhou Mi the eraser learn that school supplies make for strange bedfellows. Written for my one and only static_abyss
Disclaimer: I wish someone would sell me pencil!kyuhyun and eraser!zhou mi :(
Title: Stationery Drama
Pairing: Qmi, not-so-ninja!yewon, hanchul, kangteuk and eunhae
Rating: PG-13 (for some brief mentions of kissing and vague sexual innuendos)
Wordcount: 9258
Summary: In which Kyuhyun the pencil and Zhou Mi the eraser learn that school supplies make for strange bedfellows
Disclaimer: I wish someone would sell me pencil!kyuhyun and eraser!zhou mi :(
A/N: here are 9258 words of pure weirdness. This story was sparked by my friend who once said that if I was an eraser, she would buy me because I’m good at fixing her mistakes. This is dedicated to the one person who will forever be the eraser to my pencil static_abyss Enjoy!
Kyuhyun starts out as part of a cedar tree, looming big and tall in the forest. Until the tree is cut down into equal-sized blocks and loaded up into a truck to be delivered to a factory a few hundred miles away in Seoul. He has heard from other, more experienced trees in the forest who have seen many a cedar tree being whittled down, that he that he is going to be made into something that will be used and abused and eventually thrown away in favor of newer, fresher wood. He looks forward to it.
The next time he regains consciousness, he is in a well-lit factory, wincing as he feels metal being driven into him and suddenly, it’s like he’s been ripped in half. He’s pretty sure he can feel where parts of him have splintered and he grimaces. It’s a not a good feeling, he thinks as he wills himself to sleep.
When he wakes up, he notices that a few things have changed. For one, he has been reunited with his other half, which, you know, is a good thing so..yay. but a piece of graphite has been wedged in between them, which he supposes isn’t half bad either but it’s staining his insides and he doesn’t think he’ll ever be the same. When he turns, he realizes he’s being watched.
“We didn’t think you’d wake up!” An excited voice chirps from two pieces of wood over from him. The other four pieces he is attached to nod in agreement. He comes to befriend the others, learning that they all have distinct personalities, something he had not thought possible for pieces of wood that came from the same tree. There’s Jonghyun, who likes to think he is the dullest, ugliest one of them. And then there’s Key, who keeps whispering advice on how to make his wooden surface shinier, advice that Jonghyun is all too glad to follow. Jonghyun has also got to be the most gullible piece of wood ever, Kyuhyun muses to himself as he watches the other pout at the blemishes that now taint what previously was smooth, glossy wood. He swears he can hear Key chuckling from somewhere behind him. Then there’s Taemin who cannot seem to understand the concept of personal space and keeps trying to roll on over to his side. He, apparently, can also not understand the concept of not being able to move. Jinki and Minho are the farthest away from him and he likes them all the more for it. He doesn’t know much about them but sees that Minho is tightly wound, even for a stick, and likes to keep watch over them like a mother would over her disobedient and mischievous children. Jinki, on the other hand, may be just what causes Minho to snap into pieces before his time, with all his antics and talent for trouble. He may be the only thing Kyuhyun has seen getting hurt repeatedly, even without having the ability to move.
All in all, he realizes he has come to enjoy their company; it beats the silence that used to accompany him during his time in the forest anyway. Unfortunately, all good things come to an end and he wakes up one morning to find that he has been severed off from the rest and is in a tiny box, surrounded by things that he knows must look just like him. He looks around hopefully, thinking maybe a few of the others have been stuffed in there with him, but after hours of calling their names and getting no responses, he gives up and falls into the semi-comatose state he associates with sleep.
~~~~~~~~~~
Miles away, Zhou Mi is being burned alive, literally. His first few breaths are shallow, because he can feel himself being suffocated by the smell of the burning petroleum. He blacks out.
The next time he awakens, he can’t feel himself because he has gone numb from the excruciatingly cool temperature of the room he is in. he thinks he is more solid than he had been before, which he supposed was a good thing. He squints as much as he can to try and pinpoint exactly what had woken him up and realizes that he’s being examined. He sees, rather than feels the pokes and the prods, and just lies there until he is eventually deemed to be the right texture and left alone in the cold. he barely has time to blink before the examiners leave the room, and he has no choice but to think of what he has heard; he is apparently to suffer for the mistakes of others, he will have to clean up after the others with a smile on his face until he can’t take it anymore and breaks into tiny, useless pieces. He doesn’t know how he feels about that.
A few days later, after he had been stuffed into a ridiculous red wrapper that reads “I love mistakes” and sent off in a truck to a department store, he sits on a shelf with the others that look exactly like him, all waiting to be bought. So many days go by that soon he has begun to lose hope that he will ever be chosen until he simply lies in the darkened corner of the shelf instead of shoving his way to the front with the others.
“I want this one mommy” he hears a high pitched shriek one day and suddenly, grubby little fingers are grabbing him. He holds his breath as he is transferred from the small set of hands to larger ones, and feels woozy as he is carefully examined. He briefly wonders how he, out of all the others, got chosen, until he remembers how two nights ago a store clerk had come and cleared the self of the unsold erasers to make room for new inventory.
“Hmmm…it’s the only one left. Guess it must be popular then. Okay honey, why don’t you go get some markers, that’s all that’s left from your school’s shopping list.” He can hear the woman croon to her daughter as he is tossed into the red shopping cart, slipping between the piles of merchandize to land ungracefully between a packet of tampons and a roll of toilet paper.
~~~~~~~~~~
He tries to stay awake but he’s lulled to sleep by the soothing motion of the shopping cart. The next time his eyes open, it is to glare in annoyance at the piercing stabs he feels in his gut. He tries to roll away, only to bounce back thanks to wall blocking his way. He lies with his back facing his assailant, trying to save his injured stomach from further attacks.
“Stop” He grumbles, hoping against hope the torture will stop and his eyes flutter open, surprised, when he feels nothing for the next few minutes.
“I told you he could speak!” a voice cackled gleefully from somewhere near his middle before he is prodded until he rolls onto his back. He blinks, trying to get rid of the darkened spots the bright lamp on the desk has caused in his vision.
“Are you alright?” a husky voice asks and he rolls a little more until he sees where the noise has come from. A piece of paper was lying under him. He blinked, growing uncomfortable with the close proximity between him and the paper. He tries to roll off but he is surrounded on all sides
“I’m Kangin! Who are you?” Zhou Mi blinks when he notices that what he had previously thought was a wall was actually a ruler. A talking ruler, to be exact. Zhou Mi blinks as he is introduced to a whole mess of people whose names he doubts he will ever be able to remember. He knows that the ink pen who had mauled him earlier was named Heechul, and that the faded, patchy canvas backpack that sat unsurely in the corner was the one in charge; Leeteuk.
He learns that there are still others he has yet to meet. Because they were at school, according to Shindong who smilingly informs him of the fact after noticing his puzzled face.
Zhou Mi must have looked even more confused because Leeteuk takes pity on him and proceeds to explain that school was what they were made for. School was where humans, like the little girl who had chosen Zhou Mi at the store, went to learn. The humans did the actual mental work while the Leeteuk and the others did the physical work. Zhou Mi does not quite understand why that was a bad thing; it sounded like a fun partnership to him. But when he mentioned this to Leeteuk, the other simply smiles gently and tells him of all the horrors that they had to experience, all the under appreciation and neglect. How they were pushed past their limits and could never let their exhaustion show, for fear of being rejected and disposed of. How they had to be dependable and reliable and take what was done to them with a smile on their faces.
“Why would anyone willingly do that?” Zhou Mi questions, appalled at the idea.
Leeteuk smiles gently again, and clarifies. If they didn’t, they would be replaced by newer versions of themselves, and that would be a fate worse than death because they had all been created to have a desire to be useful and being replaced would not lead to the fulfillment of that desire.
“It also makes the kids happy” Leeteuk finishes, beaming.
“And it keeps a roof above our heads. That thought gets us through the worst days” Kangin the ruler declares in his booming voice, smacking Zhou Mi good-naturedly. Perhaps he used a bit too much strength, Kangin muses as he watches the eraser stumble forward and land flat on his front. Leeteuk shoots him a reproachful flare before using one of his frayed straps to gently right the fallen eraser.
“Sorry” Kangin grins, not looking sorry at all. “Shall we show Zhou Mi over here where he will be sleeping?” he asks, already leading the way towards where the rest had been watching them talk. Leeteuk and Zhou Mi share bemused glances before following him.
~~~~~~~~~~
He has barely had a chance to lie down after all the excitement when he hears his name being called again. He has half a mind to ignore it, but from the tone of the voice, Zhou Mi can tell it’s Heechul who is calling for him. Zhou Mi hasn’t been with them for more than a few hours but he already knows better than to ignore anything Heechul says. He can still feel the where the tip of Heechul’s head hit him repeatedly earlier, and he does not want to feel that again.
He quickly straightens up and presses against where he knows Shindong’s zipper is. Shindong unzips himself and Zhou Mi stumbles out, nearly falling flat on his front in the process. He must look ridiculous because when he rights himself, he can see that they’re all staring at him. There are more than there were before, he’s sure of it. He doesn’t know how many more, exactly, because he finds his eyes drawn to the corner of the desk where one particularly beautiful specimen rests. His eyes rake up the magnificently polished wood, and he is suddenly profusely happy that he had somehow avoided getting removed off the shelf in the super market and that he had ended up being brought here. His eyes meet the guarded ones of the pencil he’s so fixated upon and he swallows. He knows that this will be the start of something new and beautiful.
“This is the one I was telling you about. His name is Zhou Mi” Leeteuk says with a smile, breaking into his thoughts. He beckons the awkward eraser over to where he was sitting on the corner and Zhou Mi complies. The next few hours are spent in a meet-and-greet of sorts, where Zhou Mi is again introduced to names that he doubts he will remember for more than a few hours. He has to try though, if he is to stay here permanently.
He already knows Leeteuk the backpack, Kangin the ruler, Heechul the pointy ink calligraphy pen and Shindong the bulging pencil case inside whom he is supposed to sleep at night. Now he’s introduced to people from the other batch; the ones who had been away at school. He meets Han Geng the ink pot, and he notes with interest that he was apparently also made near the factory where Zhou Mi was created. He must have gazed at the other for a tad too long, because Heechul loses the slight smile he had on his pointy face before coming to stand possessively in front of the ink pot with a devilish smirk on his face. He might as well have written “Property of Heechul” across Han Geng’s white paper covered front for how subtle he was being. Not wanting to be mauled once more, Zhou Mi quickly averted his gaze and was reintroduced to the paper he had rolled on top of earlier. He blushes when he hears the husky voice introduce himself as Yesung and moves to rub against the paper in greeting but the notebook the paper is in quickly slams shut. He gets a pointed glare from the notebook marked “Siwon” and understands instantly that he shouldn’t be getting to close to Yesung. He moves away quickly, not wanting to be victimized due to the other’s unfounded jealousy.
He breezes through the next few introductions, barely acknowledging them with a smile until he gets to the one he has been waiting to meet for what feels like forever. He’s slightly disappointed when all he gets is routine once-over from the object of his secret affections before the pencil, who has introduced himself as Cho Kyuhyun, turns and talks to the pencil sharpener Zhou Mi has yet to be introduced to. He tries not to feel too bad at the flippant action because from what Leeteuk has told him, it seems that he and this Cho Kyuhyun will be spending a lot of time together. They will, after all, both be sleeping in Shindong the pencil case at night. Feeling monumentally better, he moves on over to stand by Leeteuk, who has been watching this whole meet and greet with a fond smile on his wrinkly face.
Eventually, after everyone tires of the reunion they all retire for the night. Leeteuk stretches and makes sure everyone is in their proper resting spot before he turns the desk lamp, named Kibum, off, shrouding the entire desk where they have been getting to know each other in darkness.
Zhou Mi spends that first night lying completely still once he gets back inside Shindong. His body is on high alert and he is highly attuned to his surroundings, feeling every single move Kyuhyun makes with a heightened sense of awareness. He has never felt so fascinated by any one thing before and he feels a burning need to know everything about the other. He is tempted to turn over to where he knows the other is lying and start questioning him but he knows that Kyuhyun has to go to school in the morning and Leeteuk has already warned him about how much Kyuhyun hates being disturbed. So he lies there in silence and waits for the other to stop tossing and turning before he lets himself relax and ease back into the soft cloth of Shindong’s inner “stomach”
He spends the rest of the time after Kyuhyun falls asleep feeling sorry for himself. He had already spoken to Leeteuk about his role and whether he would be going to school or not but the answer had been very unsatisfactory. Kyuhyun already had an eraser on his head that worked perfectly well , and Zhou Mi could not really be used for anything else so there was no need for Zhou Mi to be unwrapped and taken to school yet. It’s rational enough so he feels miserable about being miserable. He also worries that he will never be able to fit in with the rest of them. They’ve been through so much together and have shared lots of memories that he will never be a part of. He feels pretty useless as he lets sleep claim him, knowing that he can’t be of any use to the others, no matter how much he wants to be.
~~~~~~~~~~
He feels marginally better during the next few weeks, because it seems that his original fears of not fitting in were unfounded. He finds that they’re all friendly and he rarely has a free moment to spend thinking about his baseless worries.
He does have a few awkward incidents with them that make him wish he learned how to keep mouth shut. Like the time when he asked Leeteuk why he doesn’t go to school. After all, isn’t aren’t backpack the essential thing to take to school since it holds almost everything else someone would need there? Leeteuk promptly bursts into tears and Kangin glares at him with the most animosity he has ever seen on the usually pleasant ruler’s face. He learns that Leeteuk did go to school, every single day, until he had gotten old and frayed and the little girl deemed that he was too “ugly” to be taken to school anymore; she would rather take her shiny new bag with her.
Or like the time when he asks the same about Shindong and learns the other had never actually been to school. The girl said he was too “fat” to be carried around as he would be a burden to her. She decided to use him to store things at home. Shindong didn’t have as emotional of a reaction as Leeteuk did, but seeing the downtrodden expression on his face still made guilt churn low in his gut.
He finds it impossible to stop asking, even though he knows it’s a sensitive topic. Thankfully, with the others, like Heechul and Han Geng, the reason behind their random attendance of school was less complicated. She took them to school and used them when she needed them. The other times she left them at home. The only ones who went regularly were Kyuhyun, Sungmin, and Ryeowook the scissor.
Overall, though, he has a lot of fun with them and is glad that he got to meet them all. He may not always feel lonely, but he still feels pretty useless most of the time, because he still doesn’t have anything to do. Leeteuk explains that it’s because he’s new and pretty and there was no need for him to do anything right now but that his time would come. He just had to be patient and wait. Which would be fine and all, if only he had someone to spend time with. He had come to notice that as friendly as the group was, there was definitely a sense of exclusivity in the friendships. While he got along with all of them, and genuinely did like all of them, he didn’t have a counterpart like they all seemed to. He wasn’t a jealous person, but he did feel a pang of loneliness when he saw the interactions between the HanChul and the KangTeuk couples.
He has, at least, managed to make progress on the Kyuhyun front,and after a few awkward conversations that ended with Kyuhyun walking away from him because of some lame wood-related jokes he made, he has finally managed to crack Kyuhyun’s shell and get him talking. All it took was a few true self-deprecating stories about his loneliness with the rest of the gang and he had the self-proclaimed heartless bastard Kyuhyun at his beck and call. He felt smug knowing that out of the whole group he was one of the only ones who Kyuhyun actually talked to and respected. He was still lonely though, because Kyuhyun, the closest thing he had found to a best friend, was needed at school every day so they only got to spend time together during the night, and some afternoons when the little girl didn’t have her tutoring sessions. And even with Kyuhyun, he felt useless because he was not doing anything for the other. It’s ironic because he was created to be basically used by Kyuhyun, but Kyuhyun refuses to use him. It’s a matter of principle, he says when Zhou Mi pouts and asks him why. And yet he has no problems using Sungmin.
Lee Sungmin, Zhou Mi comes to know during his first few days with the gang, is one to watch out for. He looks sweet and innocent enough at first, but that cute façade disguises the sharp, calculative mind behind it. He has not spent enough time with the man to judge him properly but he knows that he is very important to Kyuhyun. And that alone is enough to make Zhou Mi wary of him. He is someone Kyuhyun relies on a lot and someone who can be found by his side all the time. He has even said on numerous occasions that Sungmin made him better, sharper even. Which, logically speaking, does make sense because Sungmin is a pencil sharpener and it is obvious that he possesses the ability to make a pencil sharp and all, but Zhou Mi can make Kyuhyun better too damn it!
The worst part is, they even go to school together, something Zhou Mi is innately upset about because he himself has not managed to be taken to school with Kyuhyun yet.
So naturally, Zhou Mi is not a big fan of Lee Sungmin and sometimes he really wishes that Sungmin’s blade would rust up and he would need to be replaced. He can never tell Kyuhyun how he feels though because Sungmin has just been around so much longer than he has and they have a whole history and basically Zhou Mi just doesn’t want Kyuhyun to hate him. So he bottles up all the hurt he feels when Kyuhyun, the person he shares all of his memorable experiences with, has plenty of secret memorable experiences of his own. Experiences he shares only with Lee Sungmin.
Still, Zhou Mi knows he needs to man up and get over it. So he does, or tries to anyway. He tries not to cringe every time Kyuhyun inserts himself into Sungmin, or how smug the look Sungmin throws at him afterwards is. He doesn’t even know how Sungmin knows it bothers him-; he’s Sungmin, the same Sungmin that enjoys ridiculing him about still being wrapped up in his packaging and not being of any use to anyone. He doesn’t want Sungmin to become even more smug by showing how hurt he feels because of the teasing, so he tries and gets as used to everything as he can ever possibly be. And then everything changes.
~~~~~~~~~~
Everything changes after the Accident.
~~~~~~~~~~
It starts out like any other day. Zhou Mi has been up for a few hours, just basking in the silence and waiting for Kyuhyun to come back from school. Heechul had been taken to school as well today, so they were all enjoying the rare, chatter-free day.
Around 3 PM, they hear the tell-tale sounds of girl arriving. They listen for her steps as she stomps up the stairs and freeze up as they hear the creak signifying her entering the room, Like they do every time the girl comes home from school. They know she’s going to spend about 10 minutes in the room, just putting her school stuff away and changing her clothes before she leaves to go do whatever it is that little kids do outside. They wait patiently for her to unpack her school bag as she always does but today, it seems like fate had other plans because the minute the girl takes a step towards the desk, she promptly trips and falls down. The bag flies out of her hand and crashes into the legs of the desk
They hear a tell-tale crack that sounds not unlike breaking glass, and then nothing except for the muttered curses that escape the girl’s mouth as she rights herself. Zhou Mi doesn’t know much about humans but knows that if her mother heard the words she had just uttered, she would be in a world of trouble. The curses get louder as she examines the bag and Zhou Mi clenches up in fear of what could have happened. He doesn’t feel any better as he remembers that the girl had taken Han Geng, the glass pot of ink to school too.
The cursing stops and the rustling starts, and it’s all Zhou Mi can do to keep lying there, perfectly still when all he wants to do is make sure nothing untoward has happened to his loved ones. Whatever damage had been done couldn’t have been too bad because about 5 minutes later, the girl walks away from the desk, and ten minutes after the whole scene she has changed and left the room. He hesitates for a beat before straightening up and can see the others doing the same around him. He quickly moves on over to where the day’s school batch was all laid out and breathes a sigh of relief as he scans their appearances and notices nothing strange. There appears to be a bandage on Han Geng which is turning a faint tinge of blue, but aside from that, everything seems to be fine. Or he thinks so anyway, until he turns to Kyuhyun.
Apparently, Han Geng had cracked and started leaking on things inside the girl’s bag, because Ryeowook, Heechul, and Kyuhyun were all covered in ink. For Ryeowook and Heechul it didn’t matter, because they could be cleaned easily.
As for Kyuhyun, his who-
“What the actual fuck”: Kyuhyun growls, noticing that everyone present was currently staring at him. “What in the world are you all looking at?”
No one knows how to answer him, or how to react in general. Zhou Mi notices that Leeteuk, in particular, looks hysterical, and decides to step in before he breaks down completely.
“Erm..Kyuhyunnie. well, it’s your- your eraser” he manages to get out, trying not to cave as Kyuhyun turns his dark gaze onto him
“What about my eraser?” Kyuhyun asks, and grows frustrated when he gets no response from Zhou Mi aside from an odd squeak and a mixture of words that make no sense. He stalks over to the mirror on the corner of the desk and stares in shock at his eraser, which previously used to be a beautiful red color and was currently a dyed, ugly blue.
“You- you cheap Chinese inkpot!” Kyuhyun growls, turning to face Han Geng who is standing sheepishly at the center of the desk. “Look at what you did to me!”. He proceeds to slowly move in circle around Han Geng, making menacing faces and uttering mumbled words that sounded faintly threatening, a feat which would have been much more intimidating had he not looked slightly hysterical. He soon grows dizzy and has to sit down, but continues to glare at the shamefaced pot of ink until he looks like he’s about to cry
“I’m sorry Kyuhyun” he croaks,
“Yah! What are you sorry for?” Great. Just what we need now, Zhou Mi thinks to himself sarcastically as he watches Heechul, who had so far been silent, now stalk up to where Han Geng was standing. “How is any of this your fault. Kyuhyun stop acting like such a bitch!” Zhou Mi is astonished that Heechul actually sounds like the sensible one for once.
“…” Kyuhyun says nothing, because no matter how upset he is, he knows Heechul is right
“You should feel honored to have some on Han Geng on you! It would never have happened if not for the accident. You don’t deserve to have the likes of him on you!” Heechul continues in the same haughty tone, and Zhou Mi almost snorts. There’s the Heechul they all know and have to love.
“Shut up Heechul. We’re not all as twisted as you. learn to keep that boy toy of yours on a tighter leash will you; we can’t have him whoring himself out and leaking on everyone, now can we?” Kyuhyun mocks in a tone haughty enough to rival that of Heechul.Heechul shrieks with indignation, but right when he’s about to jump at Kyuhyun, Leeteuk uses his strap to wrap around Kyuhyun and yank him out of harm’s way.
“I think that’s enough drama for today” Leeteuk rumbles and ignoring Heechul’s glares, sends everyone off to sleep. Not used to seeing this authoritarian side of Leeteuk often, they all scurry off, Han Geng dragging a reluctant Heechul behind him.
That’s the first night in a long time that Zhou Mi spends in absolute silence. Normally he and Kyuhyun would talk about what they did during the day and what they were planning on doing tomorrow. Now, however, he felt uncomfortable because the other wasn’t saying anything. After a few minutes of waiting for something to be said and hearing nothing, he decides that the other must be too traumatized to talk today and turns to get some sleep, vowing to talk about it with him tomorrow.
“Mimi?” He hears a quiet voice break into his thoughts a few hours later, and he quickly turns to face Kyuhyun.
“Yeah?” He mumbles, voices rough with sleep
“Do you hate me now too?” He asks softly, and Zhou Mi’s heart clenches as he hears how soft and unsure his voice sounds, so unlike his normal tone.
“What? No! why would you think that? No one hates you” He insists, sitting up and shaking his head to clear it completely of the sleep-induced haze.
“Everyone does! I said really bad things to Han Geng and I made Heechul angry but I didn’t mean to! I don’t think Han Geng is a cheap Chinese whore!” He tears up, and Zhou Mi finds himself falling more in love.
“Oh Kyuhyunnie” He murmurs and draws the other closer to him “I know. No one hates you” he repeats over and over as he holds Kyuhyun tightly, ignoring how much his pointy edges dig into his own soft skin. He wishes he could do something else to comfort Kyuhyun, but he must be doing something right anyway because he soon feels the other relax in his embrace. He looks at his face, and his heart skips a beat as he notices how adorable the other looks in his sleep, all puffy cheeks and mussed up hair. He finds himself drifting off to sleep with a small smile on his face.
~~~~~~~~~~
Two days later, the girl still has yet to go to school. They hear her mother talk about her being sick, and find out that she’s not going to school today. They’re all greatful to have an extended break from their duties and decide to spend the day just playing around. Kyuhyun and Heechul and Han Geng already made up the day before, and were currently wreaking havoc with the rest as Leeteuk and Zhou Mi watch fondly.
Zhou Mi turns back to respond to something Leeteuk has just said but looks back at the rest when he hears Yesung’s panicked voice calling out for him.
“Zhoooouu Mii!!! Kyuhyun’s being mean again” says Yesung the paper, whining as Kyuhyun scribbles over him. Siwon the notebook watches resentfully as the pencil rubs against the paper intimately.
“Kyuhyun!” Zhou Mi cries as he bounds over, white shavings flying everywhere as he shakes his head. “Stop that!” He exclaims as he gently moves the pencil aside and rubs himself against Yesung, getting rid of the grizzly marks Kyuhyun the pencil had left on him.
“There” he breathes. “All better!” he smiles but then suddenly freezes, realizing the implications of what he just did. He looks around and sees everyone else watching him; clearly, they too have realized what he just did. Before he can say anything else, Kyuhyun glares at him and stalks off, entering Shindong who immediately zips back up again. With a quick glance at Leeteuk, who nods reassuringly, Zhou Mi goes after him. He sits down next to the other and glances repeatedly at his face, making strange faces until Kyuhyun finally cracks and looks away, a small smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.
“What’s wrong Kyuhyun” He asks once he feels it is safe to do so.
“You know what’s wrong.” Kyuhyun grumbles, still not looking at him.
“I do indeed. But I want to hear it from you” He replies. “Look at me Kyuhyun” he implores softly, gazing searchingly into Kyuhyun’s eyes once the other turns to face him.
“I just- I feel so useless” Kyuhyun mutters finally, and Zhou Mi has to smile at the irony of it all. He had finally done what he was useful for, and it made Kyuhyun feel useless.
“You’re going to have to do better than that, Kyuhyunnie” he smiles and gets a sulky pout for his troubles. But Kyuhyun complies and starts talking. He talks about how he feels useless because now he can’t fend for himself. How he used to pride himself on his independence and now he couldn’t be independent anymore since his eraser could never be used again. All this stuff Zhou Mi had already figured out, but then there was the stuff he didn’t know. Kyuhyun tells him about how he was scared to get too close to any of them, because anyone could be gone tomorrow. He tells him about Minho and Jinki and Jonghyun and Taemin and Key and how much he enjoyed being with them and how one day he woke up and they were gone. How much he missed them and wanted to see them. Eventually Kyuhyun stops talking and they just sit there, letting the darkness overtake them as they both fall asleep.
~~~~~~~~~~
He wakes up the next morning feeling better than he usually does, and soon finds out why; Kyuhyun is still sleeping there beside him. He thinks for a moment that he has woken up too early, that the girl has yet to come and fetch Kyuhyun and take him to school with her. But when he steps outside Shindong, he realizes that is not the case; Siwon and Ryeowook are both missing and Leeteuk says they’ve gone to school. All at once, Zhou Mi feels a rush of emotions. He’s happy because this means that like he had previously thought, Kyuhyun would not be going to school anymore since he was all “damaged”. At the same time, he was also sad because he knew what this would do to whatever self-confidence Kyuhyun e had left after the Accident. He had already confided to Zhou Mi about how bad he felt about having to depend on others, particularly Zhou Mi now. He hoped that it wouldn’t bother the other man too much and that their talk the night before had helped him some. As much as he liked having new sides of Kyuhyun revealed to him, he still hated seeing the other upset.
But Zhou Mi need not have worried; Kyuhyun doesn’t seem surprised in the least to find out that he has been discarded. In fact, he immersed himself into spending time with the rest of them and readily playing with the same level of mischief that he normally did. Zhou Mi is extremely relieved with the way things are going and realizes he probably needs to give the other’s genius brain a bit more credit. His worries didn’t all disappear, but he put his negative thoughts on the backburner and joined Kyuhyun in his fun, feeling happier than he had ever been.
Zhou Mi had another reason to be happy; this whole ordeal marked the start of a shift in the relationship between him and Kyuhyun. One of his major reasons he had feared that Kyuhyun would be depressed about not going to school anymore was that Sungmin would still be going; simply put, he didn’t know what he would do if being apart from Sungmin for extended periods during the day would upset Kyuhyun. He would want to be the sympathetic friend but he did not think he could handle Sungmin having such a big hold over his beloved’s emotions. But yet again, Zhou Mi’s worries proved to be baseless. Somewhere between all the midnight talks, the pranks they played on Heechul and blamed on Henry, and all the tic-tac-toe games they played on Yesung, they had gone from being best friends to something more. Neither knew when it happened, but both acknowledged that something had happened.
Zhou Mi fondly recalls the series of events one morning while looking at Kyuhyun’s sleeping face. He knows that had the whole situation relied on him, it would never have gotten anywhere because after all this time, he was still too afraid and unconfident to try to make his dreams a reality. He was usually very good at keeping his feelings bottled up, but one day, as he watched Sungmin ecstatically hugging his Kyuhyun in greeting, he couldn’t take it anymore and burst into tears. He immediately falls silent when he realizes everyone can hear him and runs off to hide inside Shindong, still sobbing because of his pent-up emotions.
About two minutes later, the zipper slides down and Kyuhyun walks through, stone faced.
“I..Hey Kyu”Zhou Mi sniffles, and tries to turn away to disguise the last of his tears. He isn’t very successful because Kyuhyun forcibly turns his head and stares into his eyes.
“You. Are. An. Idiot” He says, emphasizing each word. Zhou Mi doesn’t even have time to express his outrage at being insulted before Kyuhyun leans in and gives him his first kiss. It’s chaste and awkward and just a little unsure, like he supposes a first kiss should be. It’s over before he can even blink, and he looks up at the other in a daze.
“But I love you.” Kyuhyun adds, with a pointed smirk. And Zhou Mi thinks, as he reaches up to kiss that smirk off of the other’s pretty face, that this is a change he can get used to.
~~~~~~~~~~
The next change that occurs, however, is not nearly as pleasant for either of them. The next major change that happened in the lives of Kyuhyun and Zhou Mi and the rest of the school supplies comes in the form of one Lee Donghae.
~~~~~~~~~~
The morning starts like any other- Zhou Mi wakes up first and spends a good hour and half doing his morning rituals (alternating between gazing stupidly at and stroking Kyuhyun’s face). Then, when his hand is too tired to continue, he bestows a couple of gentle, kiss-like rubs over Kyuhyun’s face, also a part of his daily morning ritual, before he gets up and goes outside to greet the others. Once he gets out, he sees the normal weekend morning scene; Leeteuk is the only one that looks awake in the slightest, the rest are just splayed out over the desk in varying degrees of sleepiness. The only difference is that there are two new things talking to Leeteuk that Zhou Mi has never seen before.
“Zhou Mi! Just the one I wanted to see. Come here!”: Leeteuk calls out, having spotted him standing there like an awkward duck. The strangers turn to him and smile and Zhou Mi blushes at having been caught staring. Quickly overcoming his shyness, he obediently moves on over to where Leeteuk is standing. He learns that taller one is named Lee Donghae, and that he was just recently bought. He’s astounded to learn that the other is a pencil, much like his precious Kyuhyun, but a newer version. A mechanical pencil, as Donghae says. He rolls the name around mentally and decides he likes the sound of a regular old pencil better. He’s intrigued by this Lee Donghae but soon realizes that despite, or perhaps because of, his charming personality and beautiful exterior, he’s a little too flashy for Zhou Mi’s taste. His shorter companion, who is looking around ashen-faced, is a piece of graphite lead that goes by the name Lee Hyukjae. He has never seen anything like Hyukjae, who prefers to go by the name Eunhyuk since he is silver in color and “jewel-like”, before either but from what he understands their relationship is not unlike the technical one he and Kyuhyun share. They both seem nice enough, if a little odd. He knows it’s too soon to judge though, so he puts those thoughts aside and loses himself in the conversation with the two. He had been the last new addition to their little ragtag group, so it was refreshing to talk to someone else who was probably feeling what he had before. He is so engrossed that he doesn’t notice that Kyuhyun has woken up and come to join them. He doesn’t even notice the frown that plays across Kyuhyun’s face as he hears the last few snippets of the conversation before walking away in a huff.
He stalks off to the other end of the desk, where Sungmin happens to be sitting, and flops down. A grumpy frown passes over his face as he mulls over the conversation he just overheard
“And that’s how you get all the marks off a paper if they don’t come out the normal way. Trust me, I’ve had loads of practice”: Zhou Mi answers, positively beaming that someone has taken such an interest in something he does.
“You’ll have to show me sometime Mimi-hyung!” The tall stranger answers, leaning way too close to Zhou Mi and winking. “So I can learn to do it like a pro too”
Zhou Mi, being the sweet Zhou Mi that he is, completely misses the innuendo behind those words and simply nods, “Sure Donghae! If you need something you know where to find me! Come by any time!”
Kyuhyun fumes, unable to believe the nerve of that Donghae! To think that he came in to Kyuhyun’s domain and tried to steal away his Mimi. How dare he try to use Kyuhyun’s nickname for the other? And the nerve of Zhou Mi! letting Donghae think that he could even attempt to get close to him. Why he ought to-
“Kyuhyunnie!! What’s wrong baby” Sungmin screeches in his ear, finally noticing the other man that was sitting next to him. Without giving him a chance to respond, he proceeds to sit on the other and cuddle him in a misguided attempt to make him feel better. Kyuhyun doesn’t even bother prying the other off of him. He’s too busy glaring at the area where Zhou Mi is currently fawning over the newbies and trying to think of ways to break them apart.
He abandons all rational thought once he sees Donghae practically molest Zhou Mi and instantly finds himself standing in between Donghae and Zhou Mi. the conversation they had all been having comes to a standstill as the former stares at him curiously and Zhou Mi grins, pecking him on the cheek in greeting. Normally, the sight of Mi’s sunshiny smile makes him feel all mushy inside, but right now all he can think about is how insecure he feels in his ordinary wooden coat next to the colorful exterior of Donghae. He frowns, trying to tell himself that Zhou Mi would never leave him for this flashy piece of plastic.
Zhou Mi pouts when he gets no response from the stiff pencil, but immediately finds himself worried when he notices the unhappy look on his lover’s face. He breaks off the conversation with a polite apology and pulls Kyuhyun away from the group and over to a secluded corner.
“What’s wrong?” He means to say, but before he can even finish uttering the first word, Kyuhyun interrupts.
“What’s wrong with you? I can’t believe that you would do that in front of me!” Kyuhyun spits out, glaring fiercely down at him.
“What? What are you talking about Kyuhyun?” He frowns, trying to figure out what has happened between last night and this morning that made Kyuhyun so upset.
“Don’t act all innocent with me! And don’t ask what’s wrong! It’s obvious that you don’t care.”
“Kyuhyun! Please stop talking in riddles. What is bothering you?” Zhou Mi questions, trying to stay calm.
“Why’d you even bring me here in the first place?Why don’t you go back and starting throwing yourself at that Donghae again” As soon as the words leave his mouth, he knows half of what he is saying is false but he can’t help himself. He is genuinely hurt by the idea that Zhou Mi, the one he cares more about that anything else in the world, would even be tempted to replace him. Zhou Mi, the one who knows exactly how insecure Kyuhyun can be and who vowed never to hurt him or even think about leaving him for someone else. He knows that Zhou Mi hasn’t left him, but now that there was actually someone worthy enough, he can’t help but worry.
“Oh that’s rich! Me talking to someone for a minute with a smile on my face is me throwing myself at him, but you letting Sungmin touch you all over and freaking sit on you is nothing? Why don’t you just go back to your precious Sungmin-hyung. He’s obviously more important to you then I am” Zhou Mi shouts back, his anger flaring at the unfounded accusations that are being throw at him
“…It was more than a minute”: Kyuhyun mutters sullenly after a few minutes of silence. And it’s so ridiculous a response that Zhou Mi can’t help but let a smile slip through. They look at each other for a few more minutes before they both burst in laughter. It’s their first real fight, and Zhou Mi knows it shouldn’t be ending in a fit of giggles. They should be arguing some more and then stomp off in different directions. Give each other the silent treatment for a while until one of them decides to accept the blame and apologize. But as he looks into Kyuhyun’s eyes, those beautiful eyes have glazed over with tears from laughing so hard, he thinks he would never want it any other way.
~~~~~~~~~~
Kyuhyun is in a bad mood. He had woken up way too early and had been unable to go back to sleep because he didn’t have his Zhou Mi pillow with him. He had not realized how dependent he had become on Zhou Mi being there for him until it was too late and he couldn’t function without the other by his side.
After he and Zhou Mi had their confrontation three weeks ago, they had set up some terms and agreements. As much as they both hated it, they recognized that they both had to spend time with things the other didn’t like. They had begrudgingly agreed that they would try to be mature and not get jealous over little things
Things had been progressing fine for the past few weeks; Kyuhyun only tripped Donghae a total of 17 times and Zhou Mi only wished for Sungmin to rust over about 30 times, but all in all things were fine. Kyuhyun had a feeling that something big was going to happen soon, but he didn’t know what. He doesn’t like not knowing things. It makes him feel like how he assumes Heechul normally feels.
He sighs as he realizes tossing and turning won’t help him go back to sleep and he gets up, making his way out of Shindong. But the sight that greets him makes him wish he hadn’t; Donghae is smiling lecherously at Zhou Mi as the other proceeds show him how to erase properly using the eraser on Donghae’s head on Yesung the paper. He is sure they don’t need to be standing so close together or smiling that much. Their friendliness is making him feel distinctly unfriendly. Still, remembering their pact from a few weeks ago, he forces a smile on his face and goes to join them. He challenges Donghae to a new game of tic-tac-toe on Yesung and is totally owning him, when he makes the mistake of looking up at Zhou Mi, hoping for some praise or encouragement. His stiffens when he sees Zhou Mi’s back, which is facing him as Zhou Mi is currently talking to Heechul who is standing behind him. That back that normally is flawlessly white and unmarred is currently littered with dark bruises. The kind of bruises that he gets after a particularly tough bout of erasing, the kind of erasing he is only allowed to do with Kyuhyun. But he knows that he isn’t the cause of those marks and he is absolutely infuriated.
“What. is. that?” He growls out, unable to focus on anything but those marks. He presses down harder than necessary on the page where he had been playing tic-tac-toe, almost ripping a hole through Yesung’s face. Siwon, sensing imminent danger wills himself to close, smiling with satisfaction when he hears the dull thunk as his cover close over Kyuhyun, effectively knocking him down. But he doesn’t stay down for long. He quickly rolls up, fueled by the raw anger he is feeling, and stomps over to Donghae.
“You want a piece of me? Fine! Let’s go” He exclaims, making fighting poses and glaring menacingly at Donghae, who looks extremely confused. Kyuhyun knows he is being extremely irrational in the way he’s going about solving this problem but he doesn’t care. All he knows is that he wants to make Donghae understand that he cannot, and will never again, have the opportunity to use and mark what is Kyuhyun’s.
“What are you talking about?” Donghae asks nervously, backing away from the crazed piece of wood. Aha! So the little bugger did know what he had been doing was wrong. Kyuhyun felt slightly less irrational.
“Don’t play me you useless piece of shiny plastic” Kyuhyun says, smirking when the rest of the supplies, who have gathered around them, let out a collective “Ohhhhh!” he can hear Leeteuk spazzing due to his anxiety in the background but it does not change his mind. Not even Zhou Mi’s carefully whispered words have the desired calming effect on him.
“What did you just call me?” Donghae asks. He’s still afraid, but can’t afford to lose face in front of everyone, especially not in front of his beloved lead Eunhyuk.
“What? They didn’t make you any ears when they gave you that ugly plastic body?” Kyuhyun continues to goad him, knowing it won’t be long before he caves and then he can really beat the lead out of him like he’s wanted to for so long.
“At least I’m not a plain, ugly piece of wood!” Donghae yells back, starting to get into the fighting spirit.
“Oh yeah? Well at least I wasn’t made in China!” Kyuhyun shouts back, totally neglecting the fact that half of the others on the desk with them were made in China. His words have the desired effect and Donghae gasps and stomps over to stand right in front of him.
What follows is probably the most intense fight the gang has ever seen. The two stare each other down before pouncing, creating an unsightly scene and weird graphite on graphite sounds. Their tips keep clashing as they flail at each other uselessly. They don’t accomplish much but that doesn’t stop them. Donghae, getting the upper hand momentarily after minutes of breathless thrashing, uses it to his advantage and grins stabbing Kyuhyun's hard chest with his sharp tip. An eerie crack resounds through the crowd and the gang who had been cheering relentlessly quiet down immediately.
“Nooooo!! Eunhyuk!” Donghae screams, staring down at the broken piece of lead on the desk in shock. “You bastard! Look what you did to my Hyukkie!” He cries, clutching the useless tiny piece to his chest as if it would miraculously rejoin the stump that was still inside him. Kyuhyun suddenly feels really bad, but doesn’t know quite what to say. Turns out he doesn’t need to say anything at all because Heechul comes over and smacks Donghae with his own pointy tip, making Donghae fall flat on his front.
“That wasn't even Hyukjae” Heechul the calligraphy pen announces loudly, ink flying everywhere as he shook his head. “You refuse to use him remember? He’s right there” he adds, pointing to where Hyukjae has just emerged from his box. Donghae stares at him in relief before shaking his head.
“Yeah but it could have been! And then Kyuhyun would have murdered him! You murderer!” He flails some more, trying to get at Kyuhyun again but Han Geng the inkpot gets in his way.
“I think that’s enough for today” he says, and Donghae wilts visibly at the look on his face before nodding. Han Geng pats his head sympathetically before he and Heechul escort Donghae and the rest of them off to the other side where they start getting ready to sleep.
“What was all that about?” says a voice from behind him, and he turns to face a grinning Zhou Mi who is smiling knowingly at him.
“Like you don’t know” He grumbles, feeling ashamed of his indiscretion. He has probably traumatized poor Donghae forever, but if it gets him to back off and leave Zhou Mi alone…well it was well worth the sacrifice of Donghae’s mental stability and looking foolish in front of everyone for.
“I do know. But I want to hear it from you” : Zhou Mi smiles and looks at him inquisitively.
“I was jealous” He mutters, looking anywhere but at Zhou Mi’s face.
“I’m sorry. What was that? I couldn’t hear you” Zhou Mi teases, smiling up at Kyuhyun winningly. He can’t help but laugh when Kyuhyun glares at him and tries to walk away. He quickly grabs the other one and pulls him close, smiling when he feels Kyuhyun stop his half-hearted attempts to escape.
“You must think I’m really stupid huh? Getting jealous like that” Kyuhyun mutters, not relinquishing his hold on the other.
“Hello, you’re talking to the master of stupidity and jealousy here. Of course I don’t think you’re stupid” Zhou Mi says soothingly as he pulls his face back from Kyuhyun’s chest to look in his eyes. They gaze into each other’s eyes tenderly for what seems like eternity before Kyuhyun looks away and smirks
“It doesn’t matter anyway because you’re there to protect me and erase all my stupid mistakes right?” He grins, before using his long tip to gently prod at the whiteness of Zhou Mi’s back.
“I wouldn’t have it any other way” Zhou Mi smiles in agreement before leaning up to share a gentle kiss with the other.
~~~~~~~~~~
In the end, Zhou Mi never does break into pieces and Kyuhyun never does get thrown out and replaced. They live the rest of their lives together with the ones they love much as they have been doing, sometimes agreeing and sometimes fighting, but always loving.
~~~~~~~~~~
A/N if you have made it through this story, which you must have if you’re reading this note, congratulations! Leave a comment and let me know what you thought. Also, don’t ask how kissing and other romantic activities between school supplies would work because I have no idea LOL
Pairing: Qmi, not-so-ninja!yewon, hanchul, kangteuk and eunhae
Rating: PG-13 (for some brief mentions of kissing and vague sexual innuendos)
Wordcount: 9258
Summary: In which Kyuhyun the pencil and Zhou Mi the eraser learn that school supplies make for strange bedfellows. Written for my one and only static_abyss
Disclaimer: I wish someone would sell me pencil!kyuhyun and eraser!zhou mi :(
Title: Stationery Drama
Pairing: Qmi, not-so-ninja!yewon, hanchul, kangteuk and eunhae
Rating: PG-13 (for some brief mentions of kissing and vague sexual innuendos)
Wordcount: 9258
Summary: In which Kyuhyun the pencil and Zhou Mi the eraser learn that school supplies make for strange bedfellows
Disclaimer: I wish someone would sell me pencil!kyuhyun and eraser!zhou mi :(
A/N: here are 9258 words of pure weirdness. This story was sparked by my friend who once said that if I was an eraser, she would buy me because I’m good at fixing her mistakes. This is dedicated to the one person who will forever be the eraser to my pencil static_abyss Enjoy!
Kyuhyun starts out as part of a cedar tree, looming big and tall in the forest. Until the tree is cut down into equal-sized blocks and loaded up into a truck to be delivered to a factory a few hundred miles away in Seoul. He has heard from other, more experienced trees in the forest who have seen many a cedar tree being whittled down, that he that he is going to be made into something that will be used and abused and eventually thrown away in favor of newer, fresher wood. He looks forward to it.
The next time he regains consciousness, he is in a well-lit factory, wincing as he feels metal being driven into him and suddenly, it’s like he’s been ripped in half. He’s pretty sure he can feel where parts of him have splintered and he grimaces. It’s a not a good feeling, he thinks as he wills himself to sleep.
When he wakes up, he notices that a few things have changed. For one, he has been reunited with his other half, which, you know, is a good thing so..yay. but a piece of graphite has been wedged in between them, which he supposes isn’t half bad either but it’s staining his insides and he doesn’t think he’ll ever be the same. When he turns, he realizes he’s being watched.
“We didn’t think you’d wake up!” An excited voice chirps from two pieces of wood over from him. The other four pieces he is attached to nod in agreement. He comes to befriend the others, learning that they all have distinct personalities, something he had not thought possible for pieces of wood that came from the same tree. There’s Jonghyun, who likes to think he is the dullest, ugliest one of them. And then there’s Key, who keeps whispering advice on how to make his wooden surface shinier, advice that Jonghyun is all too glad to follow. Jonghyun has also got to be the most gullible piece of wood ever, Kyuhyun muses to himself as he watches the other pout at the blemishes that now taint what previously was smooth, glossy wood. He swears he can hear Key chuckling from somewhere behind him. Then there’s Taemin who cannot seem to understand the concept of personal space and keeps trying to roll on over to his side. He, apparently, can also not understand the concept of not being able to move. Jinki and Minho are the farthest away from him and he likes them all the more for it. He doesn’t know much about them but sees that Minho is tightly wound, even for a stick, and likes to keep watch over them like a mother would over her disobedient and mischievous children. Jinki, on the other hand, may be just what causes Minho to snap into pieces before his time, with all his antics and talent for trouble. He may be the only thing Kyuhyun has seen getting hurt repeatedly, even without having the ability to move.
All in all, he realizes he has come to enjoy their company; it beats the silence that used to accompany him during his time in the forest anyway. Unfortunately, all good things come to an end and he wakes up one morning to find that he has been severed off from the rest and is in a tiny box, surrounded by things that he knows must look just like him. He looks around hopefully, thinking maybe a few of the others have been stuffed in there with him, but after hours of calling their names and getting no responses, he gives up and falls into the semi-comatose state he associates with sleep.
~~~~~~~~~~
Miles away, Zhou Mi is being burned alive, literally. His first few breaths are shallow, because he can feel himself being suffocated by the smell of the burning petroleum. He blacks out.
The next time he awakens, he can’t feel himself because he has gone numb from the excruciatingly cool temperature of the room he is in. he thinks he is more solid than he had been before, which he supposed was a good thing. He squints as much as he can to try and pinpoint exactly what had woken him up and realizes that he’s being examined. He sees, rather than feels the pokes and the prods, and just lies there until he is eventually deemed to be the right texture and left alone in the cold. he barely has time to blink before the examiners leave the room, and he has no choice but to think of what he has heard; he is apparently to suffer for the mistakes of others, he will have to clean up after the others with a smile on his face until he can’t take it anymore and breaks into tiny, useless pieces. He doesn’t know how he feels about that.
A few days later, after he had been stuffed into a ridiculous red wrapper that reads “I love mistakes” and sent off in a truck to a department store, he sits on a shelf with the others that look exactly like him, all waiting to be bought. So many days go by that soon he has begun to lose hope that he will ever be chosen until he simply lies in the darkened corner of the shelf instead of shoving his way to the front with the others.
“I want this one mommy” he hears a high pitched shriek one day and suddenly, grubby little fingers are grabbing him. He holds his breath as he is transferred from the small set of hands to larger ones, and feels woozy as he is carefully examined. He briefly wonders how he, out of all the others, got chosen, until he remembers how two nights ago a store clerk had come and cleared the self of the unsold erasers to make room for new inventory.
“Hmmm…it’s the only one left. Guess it must be popular then. Okay honey, why don’t you go get some markers, that’s all that’s left from your school’s shopping list.” He can hear the woman croon to her daughter as he is tossed into the red shopping cart, slipping between the piles of merchandize to land ungracefully between a packet of tampons and a roll of toilet paper.
~~~~~~~~~~
He tries to stay awake but he’s lulled to sleep by the soothing motion of the shopping cart. The next time his eyes open, it is to glare in annoyance at the piercing stabs he feels in his gut. He tries to roll away, only to bounce back thanks to wall blocking his way. He lies with his back facing his assailant, trying to save his injured stomach from further attacks.
“Stop” He grumbles, hoping against hope the torture will stop and his eyes flutter open, surprised, when he feels nothing for the next few minutes.
“I told you he could speak!” a voice cackled gleefully from somewhere near his middle before he is prodded until he rolls onto his back. He blinks, trying to get rid of the darkened spots the bright lamp on the desk has caused in his vision.
“Are you alright?” a husky voice asks and he rolls a little more until he sees where the noise has come from. A piece of paper was lying under him. He blinked, growing uncomfortable with the close proximity between him and the paper. He tries to roll off but he is surrounded on all sides
“I’m Kangin! Who are you?” Zhou Mi blinks when he notices that what he had previously thought was a wall was actually a ruler. A talking ruler, to be exact. Zhou Mi blinks as he is introduced to a whole mess of people whose names he doubts he will ever be able to remember. He knows that the ink pen who had mauled him earlier was named Heechul, and that the faded, patchy canvas backpack that sat unsurely in the corner was the one in charge; Leeteuk.
He learns that there are still others he has yet to meet. Because they were at school, according to Shindong who smilingly informs him of the fact after noticing his puzzled face.
Zhou Mi must have looked even more confused because Leeteuk takes pity on him and proceeds to explain that school was what they were made for. School was where humans, like the little girl who had chosen Zhou Mi at the store, went to learn. The humans did the actual mental work while the Leeteuk and the others did the physical work. Zhou Mi does not quite understand why that was a bad thing; it sounded like a fun partnership to him. But when he mentioned this to Leeteuk, the other simply smiles gently and tells him of all the horrors that they had to experience, all the under appreciation and neglect. How they were pushed past their limits and could never let their exhaustion show, for fear of being rejected and disposed of. How they had to be dependable and reliable and take what was done to them with a smile on their faces.
“Why would anyone willingly do that?” Zhou Mi questions, appalled at the idea.
Leeteuk smiles gently again, and clarifies. If they didn’t, they would be replaced by newer versions of themselves, and that would be a fate worse than death because they had all been created to have a desire to be useful and being replaced would not lead to the fulfillment of that desire.
“It also makes the kids happy” Leeteuk finishes, beaming.
“And it keeps a roof above our heads. That thought gets us through the worst days” Kangin the ruler declares in his booming voice, smacking Zhou Mi good-naturedly. Perhaps he used a bit too much strength, Kangin muses as he watches the eraser stumble forward and land flat on his front. Leeteuk shoots him a reproachful flare before using one of his frayed straps to gently right the fallen eraser.
“Sorry” Kangin grins, not looking sorry at all. “Shall we show Zhou Mi over here where he will be sleeping?” he asks, already leading the way towards where the rest had been watching them talk. Leeteuk and Zhou Mi share bemused glances before following him.
~~~~~~~~~~
He has barely had a chance to lie down after all the excitement when he hears his name being called again. He has half a mind to ignore it, but from the tone of the voice, Zhou Mi can tell it’s Heechul who is calling for him. Zhou Mi hasn’t been with them for more than a few hours but he already knows better than to ignore anything Heechul says. He can still feel the where the tip of Heechul’s head hit him repeatedly earlier, and he does not want to feel that again.
He quickly straightens up and presses against where he knows Shindong’s zipper is. Shindong unzips himself and Zhou Mi stumbles out, nearly falling flat on his front in the process. He must look ridiculous because when he rights himself, he can see that they’re all staring at him. There are more than there were before, he’s sure of it. He doesn’t know how many more, exactly, because he finds his eyes drawn to the corner of the desk where one particularly beautiful specimen rests. His eyes rake up the magnificently polished wood, and he is suddenly profusely happy that he had somehow avoided getting removed off the shelf in the super market and that he had ended up being brought here. His eyes meet the guarded ones of the pencil he’s so fixated upon and he swallows. He knows that this will be the start of something new and beautiful.
“This is the one I was telling you about. His name is Zhou Mi” Leeteuk says with a smile, breaking into his thoughts. He beckons the awkward eraser over to where he was sitting on the corner and Zhou Mi complies. The next few hours are spent in a meet-and-greet of sorts, where Zhou Mi is again introduced to names that he doubts he will remember for more than a few hours. He has to try though, if he is to stay here permanently.
He already knows Leeteuk the backpack, Kangin the ruler, Heechul the pointy ink calligraphy pen and Shindong the bulging pencil case inside whom he is supposed to sleep at night. Now he’s introduced to people from the other batch; the ones who had been away at school. He meets Han Geng the ink pot, and he notes with interest that he was apparently also made near the factory where Zhou Mi was created. He must have gazed at the other for a tad too long, because Heechul loses the slight smile he had on his pointy face before coming to stand possessively in front of the ink pot with a devilish smirk on his face. He might as well have written “Property of Heechul” across Han Geng’s white paper covered front for how subtle he was being. Not wanting to be mauled once more, Zhou Mi quickly averted his gaze and was reintroduced to the paper he had rolled on top of earlier. He blushes when he hears the husky voice introduce himself as Yesung and moves to rub against the paper in greeting but the notebook the paper is in quickly slams shut. He gets a pointed glare from the notebook marked “Siwon” and understands instantly that he shouldn’t be getting to close to Yesung. He moves away quickly, not wanting to be victimized due to the other’s unfounded jealousy.
He breezes through the next few introductions, barely acknowledging them with a smile until he gets to the one he has been waiting to meet for what feels like forever. He’s slightly disappointed when all he gets is routine once-over from the object of his secret affections before the pencil, who has introduced himself as Cho Kyuhyun, turns and talks to the pencil sharpener Zhou Mi has yet to be introduced to. He tries not to feel too bad at the flippant action because from what Leeteuk has told him, it seems that he and this Cho Kyuhyun will be spending a lot of time together. They will, after all, both be sleeping in Shindong the pencil case at night. Feeling monumentally better, he moves on over to stand by Leeteuk, who has been watching this whole meet and greet with a fond smile on his wrinkly face.
Eventually, after everyone tires of the reunion they all retire for the night. Leeteuk stretches and makes sure everyone is in their proper resting spot before he turns the desk lamp, named Kibum, off, shrouding the entire desk where they have been getting to know each other in darkness.
Zhou Mi spends that first night lying completely still once he gets back inside Shindong. His body is on high alert and he is highly attuned to his surroundings, feeling every single move Kyuhyun makes with a heightened sense of awareness. He has never felt so fascinated by any one thing before and he feels a burning need to know everything about the other. He is tempted to turn over to where he knows the other is lying and start questioning him but he knows that Kyuhyun has to go to school in the morning and Leeteuk has already warned him about how much Kyuhyun hates being disturbed. So he lies there in silence and waits for the other to stop tossing and turning before he lets himself relax and ease back into the soft cloth of Shindong’s inner “stomach”
He spends the rest of the time after Kyuhyun falls asleep feeling sorry for himself. He had already spoken to Leeteuk about his role and whether he would be going to school or not but the answer had been very unsatisfactory. Kyuhyun already had an eraser on his head that worked perfectly well , and Zhou Mi could not really be used for anything else so there was no need for Zhou Mi to be unwrapped and taken to school yet. It’s rational enough so he feels miserable about being miserable. He also worries that he will never be able to fit in with the rest of them. They’ve been through so much together and have shared lots of memories that he will never be a part of. He feels pretty useless as he lets sleep claim him, knowing that he can’t be of any use to the others, no matter how much he wants to be.
~~~~~~~~~~
He feels marginally better during the next few weeks, because it seems that his original fears of not fitting in were unfounded. He finds that they’re all friendly and he rarely has a free moment to spend thinking about his baseless worries.
He does have a few awkward incidents with them that make him wish he learned how to keep mouth shut. Like the time when he asked Leeteuk why he doesn’t go to school. After all, isn’t aren’t backpack the essential thing to take to school since it holds almost everything else someone would need there? Leeteuk promptly bursts into tears and Kangin glares at him with the most animosity he has ever seen on the usually pleasant ruler’s face. He learns that Leeteuk did go to school, every single day, until he had gotten old and frayed and the little girl deemed that he was too “ugly” to be taken to school anymore; she would rather take her shiny new bag with her.
Or like the time when he asks the same about Shindong and learns the other had never actually been to school. The girl said he was too “fat” to be carried around as he would be a burden to her. She decided to use him to store things at home. Shindong didn’t have as emotional of a reaction as Leeteuk did, but seeing the downtrodden expression on his face still made guilt churn low in his gut.
He finds it impossible to stop asking, even though he knows it’s a sensitive topic. Thankfully, with the others, like Heechul and Han Geng, the reason behind their random attendance of school was less complicated. She took them to school and used them when she needed them. The other times she left them at home. The only ones who went regularly were Kyuhyun, Sungmin, and Ryeowook the scissor.
Overall, though, he has a lot of fun with them and is glad that he got to meet them all. He may not always feel lonely, but he still feels pretty useless most of the time, because he still doesn’t have anything to do. Leeteuk explains that it’s because he’s new and pretty and there was no need for him to do anything right now but that his time would come. He just had to be patient and wait. Which would be fine and all, if only he had someone to spend time with. He had come to notice that as friendly as the group was, there was definitely a sense of exclusivity in the friendships. While he got along with all of them, and genuinely did like all of them, he didn’t have a counterpart like they all seemed to. He wasn’t a jealous person, but he did feel a pang of loneliness when he saw the interactions between the HanChul and the KangTeuk couples.
He has, at least, managed to make progress on the Kyuhyun front,and after a few awkward conversations that ended with Kyuhyun walking away from him because of some lame wood-related jokes he made, he has finally managed to crack Kyuhyun’s shell and get him talking. All it took was a few true self-deprecating stories about his loneliness with the rest of the gang and he had the self-proclaimed heartless bastard Kyuhyun at his beck and call. He felt smug knowing that out of the whole group he was one of the only ones who Kyuhyun actually talked to and respected. He was still lonely though, because Kyuhyun, the closest thing he had found to a best friend, was needed at school every day so they only got to spend time together during the night, and some afternoons when the little girl didn’t have her tutoring sessions. And even with Kyuhyun, he felt useless because he was not doing anything for the other. It’s ironic because he was created to be basically used by Kyuhyun, but Kyuhyun refuses to use him. It’s a matter of principle, he says when Zhou Mi pouts and asks him why. And yet he has no problems using Sungmin.
Lee Sungmin, Zhou Mi comes to know during his first few days with the gang, is one to watch out for. He looks sweet and innocent enough at first, but that cute façade disguises the sharp, calculative mind behind it. He has not spent enough time with the man to judge him properly but he knows that he is very important to Kyuhyun. And that alone is enough to make Zhou Mi wary of him. He is someone Kyuhyun relies on a lot and someone who can be found by his side all the time. He has even said on numerous occasions that Sungmin made him better, sharper even. Which, logically speaking, does make sense because Sungmin is a pencil sharpener and it is obvious that he possesses the ability to make a pencil sharp and all, but Zhou Mi can make Kyuhyun better too damn it!
The worst part is, they even go to school together, something Zhou Mi is innately upset about because he himself has not managed to be taken to school with Kyuhyun yet.
So naturally, Zhou Mi is not a big fan of Lee Sungmin and sometimes he really wishes that Sungmin’s blade would rust up and he would need to be replaced. He can never tell Kyuhyun how he feels though because Sungmin has just been around so much longer than he has and they have a whole history and basically Zhou Mi just doesn’t want Kyuhyun to hate him. So he bottles up all the hurt he feels when Kyuhyun, the person he shares all of his memorable experiences with, has plenty of secret memorable experiences of his own. Experiences he shares only with Lee Sungmin.
Still, Zhou Mi knows he needs to man up and get over it. So he does, or tries to anyway. He tries not to cringe every time Kyuhyun inserts himself into Sungmin, or how smug the look Sungmin throws at him afterwards is. He doesn’t even know how Sungmin knows it bothers him-; he’s Sungmin, the same Sungmin that enjoys ridiculing him about still being wrapped up in his packaging and not being of any use to anyone. He doesn’t want Sungmin to become even more smug by showing how hurt he feels because of the teasing, so he tries and gets as used to everything as he can ever possibly be. And then everything changes.
~~~~~~~~~~
Everything changes after the Accident.
~~~~~~~~~~
It starts out like any other day. Zhou Mi has been up for a few hours, just basking in the silence and waiting for Kyuhyun to come back from school. Heechul had been taken to school as well today, so they were all enjoying the rare, chatter-free day.
Around 3 PM, they hear the tell-tale sounds of girl arriving. They listen for her steps as she stomps up the stairs and freeze up as they hear the creak signifying her entering the room, Like they do every time the girl comes home from school. They know she’s going to spend about 10 minutes in the room, just putting her school stuff away and changing her clothes before she leaves to go do whatever it is that little kids do outside. They wait patiently for her to unpack her school bag as she always does but today, it seems like fate had other plans because the minute the girl takes a step towards the desk, she promptly trips and falls down. The bag flies out of her hand and crashes into the legs of the desk
They hear a tell-tale crack that sounds not unlike breaking glass, and then nothing except for the muttered curses that escape the girl’s mouth as she rights herself. Zhou Mi doesn’t know much about humans but knows that if her mother heard the words she had just uttered, she would be in a world of trouble. The curses get louder as she examines the bag and Zhou Mi clenches up in fear of what could have happened. He doesn’t feel any better as he remembers that the girl had taken Han Geng, the glass pot of ink to school too.
The cursing stops and the rustling starts, and it’s all Zhou Mi can do to keep lying there, perfectly still when all he wants to do is make sure nothing untoward has happened to his loved ones. Whatever damage had been done couldn’t have been too bad because about 5 minutes later, the girl walks away from the desk, and ten minutes after the whole scene she has changed and left the room. He hesitates for a beat before straightening up and can see the others doing the same around him. He quickly moves on over to where the day’s school batch was all laid out and breathes a sigh of relief as he scans their appearances and notices nothing strange. There appears to be a bandage on Han Geng which is turning a faint tinge of blue, but aside from that, everything seems to be fine. Or he thinks so anyway, until he turns to Kyuhyun.
Apparently, Han Geng had cracked and started leaking on things inside the girl’s bag, because Ryeowook, Heechul, and Kyuhyun were all covered in ink. For Ryeowook and Heechul it didn’t matter, because they could be cleaned easily.
As for Kyuhyun, his who-
“What the actual fuck”: Kyuhyun growls, noticing that everyone present was currently staring at him. “What in the world are you all looking at?”
No one knows how to answer him, or how to react in general. Zhou Mi notices that Leeteuk, in particular, looks hysterical, and decides to step in before he breaks down completely.
“Erm..Kyuhyunnie. well, it’s your- your eraser” he manages to get out, trying not to cave as Kyuhyun turns his dark gaze onto him
“What about my eraser?” Kyuhyun asks, and grows frustrated when he gets no response from Zhou Mi aside from an odd squeak and a mixture of words that make no sense. He stalks over to the mirror on the corner of the desk and stares in shock at his eraser, which previously used to be a beautiful red color and was currently a dyed, ugly blue.
“You- you cheap Chinese inkpot!” Kyuhyun growls, turning to face Han Geng who is standing sheepishly at the center of the desk. “Look at what you did to me!”. He proceeds to slowly move in circle around Han Geng, making menacing faces and uttering mumbled words that sounded faintly threatening, a feat which would have been much more intimidating had he not looked slightly hysterical. He soon grows dizzy and has to sit down, but continues to glare at the shamefaced pot of ink until he looks like he’s about to cry
“I’m sorry Kyuhyun” he croaks,
“Yah! What are you sorry for?” Great. Just what we need now, Zhou Mi thinks to himself sarcastically as he watches Heechul, who had so far been silent, now stalk up to where Han Geng was standing. “How is any of this your fault. Kyuhyun stop acting like such a bitch!” Zhou Mi is astonished that Heechul actually sounds like the sensible one for once.
“…” Kyuhyun says nothing, because no matter how upset he is, he knows Heechul is right
“You should feel honored to have some on Han Geng on you! It would never have happened if not for the accident. You don’t deserve to have the likes of him on you!” Heechul continues in the same haughty tone, and Zhou Mi almost snorts. There’s the Heechul they all know and have to love.
“Shut up Heechul. We’re not all as twisted as you. learn to keep that boy toy of yours on a tighter leash will you; we can’t have him whoring himself out and leaking on everyone, now can we?” Kyuhyun mocks in a tone haughty enough to rival that of Heechul.Heechul shrieks with indignation, but right when he’s about to jump at Kyuhyun, Leeteuk uses his strap to wrap around Kyuhyun and yank him out of harm’s way.
“I think that’s enough drama for today” Leeteuk rumbles and ignoring Heechul’s glares, sends everyone off to sleep. Not used to seeing this authoritarian side of Leeteuk often, they all scurry off, Han Geng dragging a reluctant Heechul behind him.
That’s the first night in a long time that Zhou Mi spends in absolute silence. Normally he and Kyuhyun would talk about what they did during the day and what they were planning on doing tomorrow. Now, however, he felt uncomfortable because the other wasn’t saying anything. After a few minutes of waiting for something to be said and hearing nothing, he decides that the other must be too traumatized to talk today and turns to get some sleep, vowing to talk about it with him tomorrow.
“Mimi?” He hears a quiet voice break into his thoughts a few hours later, and he quickly turns to face Kyuhyun.
“Yeah?” He mumbles, voices rough with sleep
“Do you hate me now too?” He asks softly, and Zhou Mi’s heart clenches as he hears how soft and unsure his voice sounds, so unlike his normal tone.
“What? No! why would you think that? No one hates you” He insists, sitting up and shaking his head to clear it completely of the sleep-induced haze.
“Everyone does! I said really bad things to Han Geng and I made Heechul angry but I didn’t mean to! I don’t think Han Geng is a cheap Chinese whore!” He tears up, and Zhou Mi finds himself falling more in love.
“Oh Kyuhyunnie” He murmurs and draws the other closer to him “I know. No one hates you” he repeats over and over as he holds Kyuhyun tightly, ignoring how much his pointy edges dig into his own soft skin. He wishes he could do something else to comfort Kyuhyun, but he must be doing something right anyway because he soon feels the other relax in his embrace. He looks at his face, and his heart skips a beat as he notices how adorable the other looks in his sleep, all puffy cheeks and mussed up hair. He finds himself drifting off to sleep with a small smile on his face.
~~~~~~~~~~
Two days later, the girl still has yet to go to school. They hear her mother talk about her being sick, and find out that she’s not going to school today. They’re all greatful to have an extended break from their duties and decide to spend the day just playing around. Kyuhyun and Heechul and Han Geng already made up the day before, and were currently wreaking havoc with the rest as Leeteuk and Zhou Mi watch fondly.
Zhou Mi turns back to respond to something Leeteuk has just said but looks back at the rest when he hears Yesung’s panicked voice calling out for him.
“Zhoooouu Mii!!! Kyuhyun’s being mean again” says Yesung the paper, whining as Kyuhyun scribbles over him. Siwon the notebook watches resentfully as the pencil rubs against the paper intimately.
“Kyuhyun!” Zhou Mi cries as he bounds over, white shavings flying everywhere as he shakes his head. “Stop that!” He exclaims as he gently moves the pencil aside and rubs himself against Yesung, getting rid of the grizzly marks Kyuhyun the pencil had left on him.
“There” he breathes. “All better!” he smiles but then suddenly freezes, realizing the implications of what he just did. He looks around and sees everyone else watching him; clearly, they too have realized what he just did. Before he can say anything else, Kyuhyun glares at him and stalks off, entering Shindong who immediately zips back up again. With a quick glance at Leeteuk, who nods reassuringly, Zhou Mi goes after him. He sits down next to the other and glances repeatedly at his face, making strange faces until Kyuhyun finally cracks and looks away, a small smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.
“What’s wrong Kyuhyun” He asks once he feels it is safe to do so.
“You know what’s wrong.” Kyuhyun grumbles, still not looking at him.
“I do indeed. But I want to hear it from you” He replies. “Look at me Kyuhyun” he implores softly, gazing searchingly into Kyuhyun’s eyes once the other turns to face him.
“I just- I feel so useless” Kyuhyun mutters finally, and Zhou Mi has to smile at the irony of it all. He had finally done what he was useful for, and it made Kyuhyun feel useless.
“You’re going to have to do better than that, Kyuhyunnie” he smiles and gets a sulky pout for his troubles. But Kyuhyun complies and starts talking. He talks about how he feels useless because now he can’t fend for himself. How he used to pride himself on his independence and now he couldn’t be independent anymore since his eraser could never be used again. All this stuff Zhou Mi had already figured out, but then there was the stuff he didn’t know. Kyuhyun tells him about how he was scared to get too close to any of them, because anyone could be gone tomorrow. He tells him about Minho and Jinki and Jonghyun and Taemin and Key and how much he enjoyed being with them and how one day he woke up and they were gone. How much he missed them and wanted to see them. Eventually Kyuhyun stops talking and they just sit there, letting the darkness overtake them as they both fall asleep.
~~~~~~~~~~
He wakes up the next morning feeling better than he usually does, and soon finds out why; Kyuhyun is still sleeping there beside him. He thinks for a moment that he has woken up too early, that the girl has yet to come and fetch Kyuhyun and take him to school with her. But when he steps outside Shindong, he realizes that is not the case; Siwon and Ryeowook are both missing and Leeteuk says they’ve gone to school. All at once, Zhou Mi feels a rush of emotions. He’s happy because this means that like he had previously thought, Kyuhyun would not be going to school anymore since he was all “damaged”. At the same time, he was also sad because he knew what this would do to whatever self-confidence Kyuhyun e had left after the Accident. He had already confided to Zhou Mi about how bad he felt about having to depend on others, particularly Zhou Mi now. He hoped that it wouldn’t bother the other man too much and that their talk the night before had helped him some. As much as he liked having new sides of Kyuhyun revealed to him, he still hated seeing the other upset.
But Zhou Mi need not have worried; Kyuhyun doesn’t seem surprised in the least to find out that he has been discarded. In fact, he immersed himself into spending time with the rest of them and readily playing with the same level of mischief that he normally did. Zhou Mi is extremely relieved with the way things are going and realizes he probably needs to give the other’s genius brain a bit more credit. His worries didn’t all disappear, but he put his negative thoughts on the backburner and joined Kyuhyun in his fun, feeling happier than he had ever been.
Zhou Mi had another reason to be happy; this whole ordeal marked the start of a shift in the relationship between him and Kyuhyun. One of his major reasons he had feared that Kyuhyun would be depressed about not going to school anymore was that Sungmin would still be going; simply put, he didn’t know what he would do if being apart from Sungmin for extended periods during the day would upset Kyuhyun. He would want to be the sympathetic friend but he did not think he could handle Sungmin having such a big hold over his beloved’s emotions. But yet again, Zhou Mi’s worries proved to be baseless. Somewhere between all the midnight talks, the pranks they played on Heechul and blamed on Henry, and all the tic-tac-toe games they played on Yesung, they had gone from being best friends to something more. Neither knew when it happened, but both acknowledged that something had happened.
Zhou Mi fondly recalls the series of events one morning while looking at Kyuhyun’s sleeping face. He knows that had the whole situation relied on him, it would never have gotten anywhere because after all this time, he was still too afraid and unconfident to try to make his dreams a reality. He was usually very good at keeping his feelings bottled up, but one day, as he watched Sungmin ecstatically hugging his Kyuhyun in greeting, he couldn’t take it anymore and burst into tears. He immediately falls silent when he realizes everyone can hear him and runs off to hide inside Shindong, still sobbing because of his pent-up emotions.
About two minutes later, the zipper slides down and Kyuhyun walks through, stone faced.
“I..Hey Kyu”Zhou Mi sniffles, and tries to turn away to disguise the last of his tears. He isn’t very successful because Kyuhyun forcibly turns his head and stares into his eyes.
“You. Are. An. Idiot” He says, emphasizing each word. Zhou Mi doesn’t even have time to express his outrage at being insulted before Kyuhyun leans in and gives him his first kiss. It’s chaste and awkward and just a little unsure, like he supposes a first kiss should be. It’s over before he can even blink, and he looks up at the other in a daze.
“But I love you.” Kyuhyun adds, with a pointed smirk. And Zhou Mi thinks, as he reaches up to kiss that smirk off of the other’s pretty face, that this is a change he can get used to.
~~~~~~~~~~
The next change that occurs, however, is not nearly as pleasant for either of them. The next major change that happened in the lives of Kyuhyun and Zhou Mi and the rest of the school supplies comes in the form of one Lee Donghae.
~~~~~~~~~~
The morning starts like any other- Zhou Mi wakes up first and spends a good hour and half doing his morning rituals (alternating between gazing stupidly at and stroking Kyuhyun’s face). Then, when his hand is too tired to continue, he bestows a couple of gentle, kiss-like rubs over Kyuhyun’s face, also a part of his daily morning ritual, before he gets up and goes outside to greet the others. Once he gets out, he sees the normal weekend morning scene; Leeteuk is the only one that looks awake in the slightest, the rest are just splayed out over the desk in varying degrees of sleepiness. The only difference is that there are two new things talking to Leeteuk that Zhou Mi has never seen before.
“Zhou Mi! Just the one I wanted to see. Come here!”: Leeteuk calls out, having spotted him standing there like an awkward duck. The strangers turn to him and smile and Zhou Mi blushes at having been caught staring. Quickly overcoming his shyness, he obediently moves on over to where Leeteuk is standing. He learns that taller one is named Lee Donghae, and that he was just recently bought. He’s astounded to learn that the other is a pencil, much like his precious Kyuhyun, but a newer version. A mechanical pencil, as Donghae says. He rolls the name around mentally and decides he likes the sound of a regular old pencil better. He’s intrigued by this Lee Donghae but soon realizes that despite, or perhaps because of, his charming personality and beautiful exterior, he’s a little too flashy for Zhou Mi’s taste. His shorter companion, who is looking around ashen-faced, is a piece of graphite lead that goes by the name Lee Hyukjae. He has never seen anything like Hyukjae, who prefers to go by the name Eunhyuk since he is silver in color and “jewel-like”, before either but from what he understands their relationship is not unlike the technical one he and Kyuhyun share. They both seem nice enough, if a little odd. He knows it’s too soon to judge though, so he puts those thoughts aside and loses himself in the conversation with the two. He had been the last new addition to their little ragtag group, so it was refreshing to talk to someone else who was probably feeling what he had before. He is so engrossed that he doesn’t notice that Kyuhyun has woken up and come to join them. He doesn’t even notice the frown that plays across Kyuhyun’s face as he hears the last few snippets of the conversation before walking away in a huff.
He stalks off to the other end of the desk, where Sungmin happens to be sitting, and flops down. A grumpy frown passes over his face as he mulls over the conversation he just overheard
“And that’s how you get all the marks off a paper if they don’t come out the normal way. Trust me, I’ve had loads of practice”: Zhou Mi answers, positively beaming that someone has taken such an interest in something he does.
“You’ll have to show me sometime Mimi-hyung!” The tall stranger answers, leaning way too close to Zhou Mi and winking. “So I can learn to do it like a pro too”
Zhou Mi, being the sweet Zhou Mi that he is, completely misses the innuendo behind those words and simply nods, “Sure Donghae! If you need something you know where to find me! Come by any time!”
Kyuhyun fumes, unable to believe the nerve of that Donghae! To think that he came in to Kyuhyun’s domain and tried to steal away his Mimi. How dare he try to use Kyuhyun’s nickname for the other? And the nerve of Zhou Mi! letting Donghae think that he could even attempt to get close to him. Why he ought to-
“Kyuhyunnie!! What’s wrong baby” Sungmin screeches in his ear, finally noticing the other man that was sitting next to him. Without giving him a chance to respond, he proceeds to sit on the other and cuddle him in a misguided attempt to make him feel better. Kyuhyun doesn’t even bother prying the other off of him. He’s too busy glaring at the area where Zhou Mi is currently fawning over the newbies and trying to think of ways to break them apart.
He abandons all rational thought once he sees Donghae practically molest Zhou Mi and instantly finds himself standing in between Donghae and Zhou Mi. the conversation they had all been having comes to a standstill as the former stares at him curiously and Zhou Mi grins, pecking him on the cheek in greeting. Normally, the sight of Mi’s sunshiny smile makes him feel all mushy inside, but right now all he can think about is how insecure he feels in his ordinary wooden coat next to the colorful exterior of Donghae. He frowns, trying to tell himself that Zhou Mi would never leave him for this flashy piece of plastic.
Zhou Mi pouts when he gets no response from the stiff pencil, but immediately finds himself worried when he notices the unhappy look on his lover’s face. He breaks off the conversation with a polite apology and pulls Kyuhyun away from the group and over to a secluded corner.
“What’s wrong?” He means to say, but before he can even finish uttering the first word, Kyuhyun interrupts.
“What’s wrong with you? I can’t believe that you would do that in front of me!” Kyuhyun spits out, glaring fiercely down at him.
“What? What are you talking about Kyuhyun?” He frowns, trying to figure out what has happened between last night and this morning that made Kyuhyun so upset.
“Don’t act all innocent with me! And don’t ask what’s wrong! It’s obvious that you don’t care.”
“Kyuhyun! Please stop talking in riddles. What is bothering you?” Zhou Mi questions, trying to stay calm.
“Why’d you even bring me here in the first place?Why don’t you go back and starting throwing yourself at that Donghae again” As soon as the words leave his mouth, he knows half of what he is saying is false but he can’t help himself. He is genuinely hurt by the idea that Zhou Mi, the one he cares more about that anything else in the world, would even be tempted to replace him. Zhou Mi, the one who knows exactly how insecure Kyuhyun can be and who vowed never to hurt him or even think about leaving him for someone else. He knows that Zhou Mi hasn’t left him, but now that there was actually someone worthy enough, he can’t help but worry.
“Oh that’s rich! Me talking to someone for a minute with a smile on my face is me throwing myself at him, but you letting Sungmin touch you all over and freaking sit on you is nothing? Why don’t you just go back to your precious Sungmin-hyung. He’s obviously more important to you then I am” Zhou Mi shouts back, his anger flaring at the unfounded accusations that are being throw at him
“…It was more than a minute”: Kyuhyun mutters sullenly after a few minutes of silence. And it’s so ridiculous a response that Zhou Mi can’t help but let a smile slip through. They look at each other for a few more minutes before they both burst in laughter. It’s their first real fight, and Zhou Mi knows it shouldn’t be ending in a fit of giggles. They should be arguing some more and then stomp off in different directions. Give each other the silent treatment for a while until one of them decides to accept the blame and apologize. But as he looks into Kyuhyun’s eyes, those beautiful eyes have glazed over with tears from laughing so hard, he thinks he would never want it any other way.
~~~~~~~~~~
Kyuhyun is in a bad mood. He had woken up way too early and had been unable to go back to sleep because he didn’t have his Zhou Mi pillow with him. He had not realized how dependent he had become on Zhou Mi being there for him until it was too late and he couldn’t function without the other by his side.
After he and Zhou Mi had their confrontation three weeks ago, they had set up some terms and agreements. As much as they both hated it, they recognized that they both had to spend time with things the other didn’t like. They had begrudgingly agreed that they would try to be mature and not get jealous over little things
Things had been progressing fine for the past few weeks; Kyuhyun only tripped Donghae a total of 17 times and Zhou Mi only wished for Sungmin to rust over about 30 times, but all in all things were fine. Kyuhyun had a feeling that something big was going to happen soon, but he didn’t know what. He doesn’t like not knowing things. It makes him feel like how he assumes Heechul normally feels.
He sighs as he realizes tossing and turning won’t help him go back to sleep and he gets up, making his way out of Shindong. But the sight that greets him makes him wish he hadn’t; Donghae is smiling lecherously at Zhou Mi as the other proceeds show him how to erase properly using the eraser on Donghae’s head on Yesung the paper. He is sure they don’t need to be standing so close together or smiling that much. Their friendliness is making him feel distinctly unfriendly. Still, remembering their pact from a few weeks ago, he forces a smile on his face and goes to join them. He challenges Donghae to a new game of tic-tac-toe on Yesung and is totally owning him, when he makes the mistake of looking up at Zhou Mi, hoping for some praise or encouragement. His stiffens when he sees Zhou Mi’s back, which is facing him as Zhou Mi is currently talking to Heechul who is standing behind him. That back that normally is flawlessly white and unmarred is currently littered with dark bruises. The kind of bruises that he gets after a particularly tough bout of erasing, the kind of erasing he is only allowed to do with Kyuhyun. But he knows that he isn’t the cause of those marks and he is absolutely infuriated.
“What. is. that?” He growls out, unable to focus on anything but those marks. He presses down harder than necessary on the page where he had been playing tic-tac-toe, almost ripping a hole through Yesung’s face. Siwon, sensing imminent danger wills himself to close, smiling with satisfaction when he hears the dull thunk as his cover close over Kyuhyun, effectively knocking him down. But he doesn’t stay down for long. He quickly rolls up, fueled by the raw anger he is feeling, and stomps over to Donghae.
“You want a piece of me? Fine! Let’s go” He exclaims, making fighting poses and glaring menacingly at Donghae, who looks extremely confused. Kyuhyun knows he is being extremely irrational in the way he’s going about solving this problem but he doesn’t care. All he knows is that he wants to make Donghae understand that he cannot, and will never again, have the opportunity to use and mark what is Kyuhyun’s.
“What are you talking about?” Donghae asks nervously, backing away from the crazed piece of wood. Aha! So the little bugger did know what he had been doing was wrong. Kyuhyun felt slightly less irrational.
“Don’t play me you useless piece of shiny plastic” Kyuhyun says, smirking when the rest of the supplies, who have gathered around them, let out a collective “Ohhhhh!” he can hear Leeteuk spazzing due to his anxiety in the background but it does not change his mind. Not even Zhou Mi’s carefully whispered words have the desired calming effect on him.
“What did you just call me?” Donghae asks. He’s still afraid, but can’t afford to lose face in front of everyone, especially not in front of his beloved lead Eunhyuk.
“What? They didn’t make you any ears when they gave you that ugly plastic body?” Kyuhyun continues to goad him, knowing it won’t be long before he caves and then he can really beat the lead out of him like he’s wanted to for so long.
“At least I’m not a plain, ugly piece of wood!” Donghae yells back, starting to get into the fighting spirit.
“Oh yeah? Well at least I wasn’t made in China!” Kyuhyun shouts back, totally neglecting the fact that half of the others on the desk with them were made in China. His words have the desired effect and Donghae gasps and stomps over to stand right in front of him.
What follows is probably the most intense fight the gang has ever seen. The two stare each other down before pouncing, creating an unsightly scene and weird graphite on graphite sounds. Their tips keep clashing as they flail at each other uselessly. They don’t accomplish much but that doesn’t stop them. Donghae, getting the upper hand momentarily after minutes of breathless thrashing, uses it to his advantage and grins stabbing Kyuhyun's hard chest with his sharp tip. An eerie crack resounds through the crowd and the gang who had been cheering relentlessly quiet down immediately.
“Nooooo!! Eunhyuk!” Donghae screams, staring down at the broken piece of lead on the desk in shock. “You bastard! Look what you did to my Hyukkie!” He cries, clutching the useless tiny piece to his chest as if it would miraculously rejoin the stump that was still inside him. Kyuhyun suddenly feels really bad, but doesn’t know quite what to say. Turns out he doesn’t need to say anything at all because Heechul comes over and smacks Donghae with his own pointy tip, making Donghae fall flat on his front.
“That wasn't even Hyukjae” Heechul the calligraphy pen announces loudly, ink flying everywhere as he shook his head. “You refuse to use him remember? He’s right there” he adds, pointing to where Hyukjae has just emerged from his box. Donghae stares at him in relief before shaking his head.
“Yeah but it could have been! And then Kyuhyun would have murdered him! You murderer!” He flails some more, trying to get at Kyuhyun again but Han Geng the inkpot gets in his way.
“I think that’s enough for today” he says, and Donghae wilts visibly at the look on his face before nodding. Han Geng pats his head sympathetically before he and Heechul escort Donghae and the rest of them off to the other side where they start getting ready to sleep.
“What was all that about?” says a voice from behind him, and he turns to face a grinning Zhou Mi who is smiling knowingly at him.
“Like you don’t know” He grumbles, feeling ashamed of his indiscretion. He has probably traumatized poor Donghae forever, but if it gets him to back off and leave Zhou Mi alone…well it was well worth the sacrifice of Donghae’s mental stability and looking foolish in front of everyone for.
“I do know. But I want to hear it from you” : Zhou Mi smiles and looks at him inquisitively.
“I was jealous” He mutters, looking anywhere but at Zhou Mi’s face.
“I’m sorry. What was that? I couldn’t hear you” Zhou Mi teases, smiling up at Kyuhyun winningly. He can’t help but laugh when Kyuhyun glares at him and tries to walk away. He quickly grabs the other one and pulls him close, smiling when he feels Kyuhyun stop his half-hearted attempts to escape.
“You must think I’m really stupid huh? Getting jealous like that” Kyuhyun mutters, not relinquishing his hold on the other.
“Hello, you’re talking to the master of stupidity and jealousy here. Of course I don’t think you’re stupid” Zhou Mi says soothingly as he pulls his face back from Kyuhyun’s chest to look in his eyes. They gaze into each other’s eyes tenderly for what seems like eternity before Kyuhyun looks away and smirks
“It doesn’t matter anyway because you’re there to protect me and erase all my stupid mistakes right?” He grins, before using his long tip to gently prod at the whiteness of Zhou Mi’s back.
“I wouldn’t have it any other way” Zhou Mi smiles in agreement before leaning up to share a gentle kiss with the other.
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In the end, Zhou Mi never does break into pieces and Kyuhyun never does get thrown out and replaced. They live the rest of their lives together with the ones they love much as they have been doing, sometimes agreeing and sometimes fighting, but always loving.
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A/N if you have made it through this story, which you must have if you’re reading this note, congratulations! Leave a comment and let me know what you thought. Also, don’t ask how kissing and other romantic activities between school supplies would work because I have no idea LOL